Take Your Shots Now

One thing you will learn about sportswriters and national talking heads is that they love easy stories. Bashing Notre Dame is an incredibly easy story for them right now. Bringing up comparisons between The Ty Willingham Debacle and Coach Weis is an easy story right now. Everything is easy for them until we start to win games.

I guess they can only shoot so many bullets at Michigan right now - hell, they might be out of ammunition at this time.

So, as a well-measured and somewhat-sane Notre Dame fan, I just sit back and tell them - "Take Your Shots Now" - because we won't be such an easy target in the coming years - and even later on this season.

Of course no one expected us to be in the 100s for our national ranking on offense, but this slow start was not entirely unexpected. New QB. Three new starters on offensive line. Unproven running backs. Unproven wide receivers - you think about that for a bit and it all makes a little sense.

The problem is, we still expected us to be better. And we should be. I always find it difficult to pin problems on the players (I mean, they are 18-22 years old, they don't know shit about life) but at some point here, someone has to step up and make a play. Darrin Walls did. Tom Zbikowski has. Trevor Laws is playing like an All-American on the defensive line. Mo Crum is his usual stead self. Hell, even Joe Brockington had 10 tackles last week.

Um, offensive line - hell, the entire offense - time to step up. The breakdowns have been so random (one time it is the OL, next time the FB misses the block, next time there is a dropped pass, next time the QB doesn't throw the ball, next time false start, next time holding) that you can't really pin it on one group. The entire offense needs to step it up - and quickly.

I can't really pin down right now why I am not more upset. I think because I see right now that we just don't have it in us on offense. You can literally just sit there and watch it. Whether it is play calling, execution or the damn tides - you can just sit there and not have much in the way of confidence that the offense is going to do anything. AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM. Confidence.

The OL has no confidence that it can block anyone. The RBs have no confidence that there will be holes to run through. The QB has no confidence he can step back in the pocket and take a look down field. The WRs have no confidence that the QB will see them when they are open. The TEs have no confidence that the OL can protect without them. It is a vicious circle - and you know what - somone needs to step up and give the team confidence. Someone needs to say - screw it - I am making a play when there is no play to be made.

I think JC has a little of that in him, but he can't be expected to do that in his second game (though bring it on if you can Jimmy!). It nees to be a WR that won't be covered, a RB who will make multiple people miss (or just run them over). Someone makes a big play, I think this team will step up.

We are going to improve each week. This is the one year when we get better every weekend. This is the year when we might play our best in the bowl game. ND fans out there need to turn a deaf ear to the national writers and talking heads - let them take their shots right now. As much as they would like to disprove this statement - we are relevant. They are still talking about us even though we are 0-2. We mean more at 0-2 than a 2-0 Cal team or a 1-0 USC team. Think about that for a minute.

So take your shots now while you can. Enjoy your time to smear the one school that runs its program the right way. Enjoy the time when you can bash a team that laid the foundation that modern college football operates under. Enjoy your time - it ain't gonna last long. In fact, it might just end this weekend in the Whore That Is Ann Arbor.

Then what will you have? Oh yeah, Michigan. I forgot. You ranked them #5 to start the year and they are on the brink of losing their first three games AT HOME. Better go get some more ammunition.